Episode 307
“There is a condition.”
“condition?”
Cassel Matapju smiled softly at Baros’s words.
“It looks like the little guy doesn’t have good ears. You’re saying I’ll do everything for you, but you’re putting a condition on it?”
“How can I trust you? Even to believe that promise, conditions are necessary.”
“Hehe. You’re such a greedy kid.”
A benevolent smile, like that of a country roader, rested on the old man’s lips, but his gray eyes were not smiling at all.
Baros just looked at those creepy eyes with a grin.
An expression is just a shape created by the skin of the face and is a characteristic seen by those who have nothing to do with their sincerity.
Such people could often be seen even in the imperial court.
Of course, they did not have monstrous strength like the old man in front of them.
“You don’t know that there’s no reason why we should choose you, do you?”
“If you touch another member of the royal family who is close to the right to succeed to the throne other than me, this time it will be the legions of the empire, not the magicians of the Removing Wind, that will come after you, right?”
“Is there a way to touch your spirit without having to persuade you?”
“If it were possible to break through the imperial magic border network, I would have already done so.”
The smiling but motionless black and gray eyes intertwined fiercely.
“Puhuhuh. What a reckless kid you are.”
Soon the old man burst into laughter, and Baros realized that his gamble had paid off.
“What do you want?”
“…There is a guy who disturbs my mind whenever I encounter him. Either get rid of him or investigate the cause.”
Only after the opponent had made a move, Baros stopped talking informally to compete for momentum and switched to attacking.
It may have been an illusion, but the old man’s gray eyes seemed to have softened slightly.
“What can the prince of an empire do to one person?”
“He is the king of a nation. He is also a superman.”
“what?”
“Logan McLane, the current king of the McLane Kingdom. He is the target.”
“Puhuhuh.”
An old man laughing as if it was fun.
But he soon stopped laughing and smiled strangely.
“The king of McLane. Yes, I heard rumors about that young genius. But if the king dies or something goes wrong, there will be more chaos, right?”
“I was rather hoping for it.”
“As expected, the Empire was thinking about war.”
Hearing the old man’s words, Baros gritted his teeth for a moment. He realized too late that he had given too many clues.
but.
‘Now that things have gotten this far, we need to use them as a stepping stone.’
The Imperial Guard appeared at the place where we were supposed to meet with the Kassel Mage Tower. It was clear that if he continued like this without any results, rather than preserving his position, he would be beheaded.
From Baros’s perspective, they have now become a rope that must be held onto.
“Well, it’s not that bad. He’s someone I’ve been paying attention to already.”
Were you paying attention to him?
why?
Feeling anxious about something, he opened his mouth again, but his flashing gray eyes blocked his mouth.
“Descendant of the royal family’s little predecessor. Now that the time has come, I will match your rhythm, but nothing more. You understand the basics of trading, right?”
at the time? When?
I had a lot of questions, but I knew it intuitively.
If you try to dig up anything more under the pretext of a deal, the old man will not accept it as obediently as before.
“The basics of trading are giving and receiving. How can you not know that?”
However, I had no intention of becoming a simpleton.
“But asking you to listen to ‘the conditions’ that will make me emperor is an offer you made, not what I wanted.”
“You’re talking as if you don’t want to become emperor. I wonder if that hypocrite’s bloodlines are all like this…”
Baros’ face hardened at the insulting words toward his ancestors.
But soon the pressure of the gray energy creeping up from the old man’s body made it impossible for him to open his mouth.
“Remember, kid. You can fool the whole world, but you can’t fool yourself.”
The voice of the old man, who reminded me of a simple country old man, sounded particularly eerie.
“The Black Snake’s contract is a contract made by the soul. Now your choice can never be broken. No god or magic will break this contract.”
With a voice that rang out as if declaring, it felt as if the old man’s gray energy had covered the whole world, and Baros’s breathing was tightened.
“Gagging. Gagging. This….”
Baros, unable to bear the pressure, lets out a scream.
“So don’t forget your promise, Prince Baros.”
As the old man’s voice returned with a smile on his face, the pressure that had been weighing on his whole body disappeared as if it were an illusion.
But Baros could not smile like an old man.
“What have you done to me!?”
“What are you doing? We were just having a conversation.”
Baros’s face became even colder at the sight of the old man’s grinning expression.
“You look at me like a fool…!”
“Didn’t you say it yourself? If I could destroy the imperial family’s magic border network, there would be no need to talk for so long.”
“…!?”
“Just because I gave you a little bit of a scare, you have to be really scared to use it. The guy who will become the emperor in the future.”
At those words, Baros’s expression hardened even more, but he did not open his mouth any more.
There was a lot I wanted to say, but I thought it wouldn’t work if I said more.
And that decision also included belief in the imperial family’s magical measures.
If you could just do what the old man said and play tricks on me without realizing it, there wouldn’t be a need for such a long conversation.
“Don’t forget your promise.”
“…Don’t forget your promise. Especially when it comes to that kingdom, be sure to do it…” “
Your father will understand if you tell him what I said. There’s no way the emperor doesn’t know the movements of the kingdom. If that’s the case…” ..”
* * *
“You’re going to use them?”
The emperor’s question momentarily reawakened Baros, who had been lost in thought.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I am sure there will be no need to cause trouble to you and His Majesty the King of Dongyik.”
“Do you know what to do?”
“Wouldn’t it be okay to slit the heads of Logan McLane and his associates?”
“Ha…”
The emperor’s expression hardened slightly at that direct and extreme expression, but Baros continued speaking.
“It’s different from before. If we use them, even if they fail, they won’t find any connection to our empire. It’s a shame, but there’s been an uproar recently because of me.”
Everyone present’s eyes lit up at those words.
The emperor was also looking at Baros with a strange expression, when a voice suddenly interrupted.
“It looks like His Highness has changed quite a bit since I haven’t seen him. I can’t believe he accepts his faults so easily.”
A smile appeared in the blue eyes of King Gerard Van Aserian.
A conversation between the emperor and the prince. It was rude to interrupt without understanding, but no one blamed him.
The four pillars of the empire, with only the emperor at the top. Because one of the four kings deserved it.
“Gerard.”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. As my godfather, I’m glad to see Your Highness Baros’s growth…”
“He’s still a long way off.”
Despite King Dongyik’s praise, the emperor’s words were cold.
King Dongyik, who did not have the courage to refute the emperor’s assessment, silently took a step back and lowered his head.
The difference in temperature between the two people’s words was so great that you couldn’t tell who the real father was just by listening to them.
And Baros lowered his gaze, suppressing the feeling that his face was about to convulse.
‘A cold-hearted evaluation is better.’
King Dongik’s seemingly warm words are literally empty words that don’t even know how much sincerity they contain.
“By the way, I think His Highness Barros just told you why I was summoned. Is that… work on McLane?”
The Emperor shook his head slightly, looking at the blue eyes that had lost their smile.
“Any method is fine. Use your hands appropriately so that the ‘plan’ can proceed smoothly.”
“…is the method autonomous?”
“Yes.”
“In that case, I would also like to side with His Highness Baros’s opinion.”
At those words, Baros’ eyes turned to King Dongik.
The emperor was also surprised and looked at him with a strange expression.
“Don’t you all know that His Highness Baros has been working on various countries in the East? He is probably able to handle things more efficiently than His Highness Clid, who has been in the West all along.”
At those words, the expression of Prince Clid, who was quietly listening to King Dongyik, frowned slightly like someone in front of him.
‘Even their facial expressions are similar.’
Maybe he practiced it on purpose.
Even the slightest expression on his half-brother’s face bothered Baros, but he didn’t bother to show it.
Even the slightest loophole should not be visible.
It’s the same thing that King Dongik doesn’t like, but he was pushing him now.
The emperor, who had not shown much of a reaction the entire time, probably realized his earnest feelings, nodded his head indifferently.
“Good. But get help from King Dongyik.”
“…yes?”
“And let King Dongyik manage them. You can coordinate that much, right?”
I could never reveal my sincerity that it would be difficult.
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
All I had to do was give him a firm answer and instill in him a belief that he himself did not believe in.
And so the unexpected three-party audience ended.
“You’ve changed in many ways.”
“Ah. Is that so, brother? I tried to follow you because of the insufficient grain offering.”
“…The insidious thing remains the same.”
A faint look of disgust appeared on Clid’s expressionless face.
However, Barros, who was more than happy to change that stone-like face, only smiled even brighter.
“I just wanted to correct my recent mistake, but I feel like I unintentionally made a mistake for you, and I’m sorry.”
Eat.
“It’s a vain step… that can’t be possible.”
Did you get something?
Baros’s eyebrows twitched slightly at those meaningful words.
“As expected, our princes and royal families are very friendly. How is it that there is no bloodshed in this generation?”
There was a person with a sly voice and an arm around the shoulders of the two people.
The two princes’ faces frowned at the same time.
This time, the two people’s thoughts seemed to coincide.
Not only was it ridiculous to not take into account the height of the shoulders of the two princes, which seemed to be a good 20cm apart, but the words he slyly said did not feel sincere at all.
“Huh? No? Do I really have to see that again?”
Rather, Clid struck King Dongyik’s right arm with an indifferent expression at the words that seemed to encourage discord between the princes.
“I’m busy so I’ll stop.”
King Dongyik clicked his tongue and shook his head as he turned around before he finished speaking.
“It seems like the bigger it gets, the harder it gets. Isn’t that right, Baros?”
Baros also wanted to do the same thing as his half-brother this time, but he couldn’t.
Past mistakes. Because interest was the monitoring measure for what had to be done to bury it.
“Now how are you going to start work?”
ha.
“Please don’t disturb me.”
“Interfering? I’m clearly a helper? Didn’t you hear what His Majesty said earlier?”
“I’m saying this because I heard it.”
“Hehe. This really makes the godfather sad. Oh, how about going to Dongwangbu first? “It’s geographically close.”
“That’s it.”
“I’ll have to see Luisa after a long time. Hasn’t it been too long since we haven’t seen our cousins?”
Baros was lost in thought, trying to ignore the voice coming from next to him.
‘How can I tell them to take control of the Eastern King’s Department?’
His head was pounding with the biggest problem at hand.
Because of that, he was completely unaware of the gray aura that passed through the strangely shining blue eyes of the Dongyik King.
* * *
“You said you wanted to change the atmosphere of the Presbytery, Luisa.”
“Yes. ”
“Then you have to make a contribution. A pitch that everyone can understand.”
“….”
“You go to Macline. And investigate him.”
“…Is it okay to just investigate?”
“The investigation comes first. The king’s actions may be closely related to the beginning of the era when God left.”
“What about after that?”
“… If it is determined to be irrelevant, deal with it immediately. However, if it is related, we take a different approach. Because the king’s death is not necessary for the kingdom to be in chaos.” ”
Yes, I understand.”
Inside the dark stone room.
A beautiful woman with white skin and blue eyes revealed through flowing jet-black hair under a black robe. The face looked unusually similar to someone famous in the empire.
